I read that the Senate cafeteria has changed its pathetically renamed freedom fries back to french fries. I presume freedom toast, freedom dressing and the other foods with new homeland security appellations, er, I mean names, have reverted back to their original monikers. Guess we showed the world, huh?

Larry Greenly wrote:I read that the Senate cafeteria has changed its pathetically renamed freedom fries back to french fries. I presume freedom toast, freedom dressing and the other foods with new homeland security appellations, er, I mean names, have reverted back to their original monikers. Guess we showed the world, huh?

Couple of nitpicks, Larry: First, this change occurred quietly about six weeks ago. Interestingly, it didn't get the same level of attention from the right-wing talk show gang as did the original change. Funny thing. Second, the Senate cafeteria never made the change, only the House cafeteria did.

Larry Greenly wrote:I read that the Senate cafeteria has changed its pathetically renamed freedom fries back to french fries. I presume freedom toast, freedom dressing and the other foods with new homeland security appellations, er, I mean names, have reverted back to their original monikers. Guess we showed the world, huh?

Couple of nitpicks, Larry: First, this change occurred quietly about six weeks ago. Interestingly, it didn't get the same level of attention from the right-wing talk show gang as did the original change. Funny thing. Second, the Senate cafeteria never made the change to "Freedom" fries, only the House cafeteria did.

Robert Ney, a member of the House of Representatives, is the first politician to plead guilty in the scandal which forced the resignation of the former leader of the Republican majority in the House, Tom DeLay.

...

The Ohio legislator, who rebaptised the French fries served in the House cafeteria "freedom fries" in 2003 to protest France's opposition to the Iraq war, is the second Republican politician to plead guilty to corruption in less than a year.</b>

Carl, there is plenty of nastiness and corruption on both sides of the fence to go around. If someone thinks the GOP has a monopoly on corruption, they have their head in the sand. Personally, I'm sick to death of the whole political scene -- none of them have the country's interest at heart, only their own agendas. It is sad, truly sad.

"In 2005 he found himself being guided to visit Egypt, specifically the Temple of Hathor at Dendera. The astonishing photographs he took there suggest that we were ruled then by a race of reptilian aliens."[/quote]

Political (and religious) discussions tend to become rather heated rather quickly as a result of the participants having long ago formulated entrenched positions on these subjects, and mostly seeing no good reason to actually stop and think about them again with reference to the current discussion.

It is nice to see a group where things political need not turn to immediate acrimony.

Just a comment from the sidelines - not news to anyone, I'm sure.

American politics, is really not that interesting to the rest of the world (OK, so you think it is the only game in town and we all SHOULD be waiting with bated breath for the next development - but we aren't).

And the antics of American politicians rank up there with TV programs (heck, look at the overlap in personnel....) and are passably amusing for a short time, but ultimately much of the laughter reflects badly on the nation - I'd have said on politicians, but they are the same the world over and deserve to be treated with absolute cynicism.

The whole freedom fry business is laughable to the rest of the world, including many American friends, but seems (sadly, from my viewpoint) to be deadly serious to many others, and I expect much discussion on the subject will bring out the polarised opposite sides and deteriorate into something none of us would want to read or contribute to.

Bill Spohn wrote:The whole freedom fry business is laughable to the rest of the world, including many American friends, but seems (sadly, from my viewpoint) to be deadly serious to many others, and I expect much discussion on the subject will bring out the polarised opposite sides and deteriorate into something none of us would want to read or contribute to.

What I find most amusing about it is the aspect of history repeating itself.

During the wave of anti-German sentiment of World War I, we had "patriotic" renaming going on both in America and Britain:

sauerkraut became "victory cabbage"
weiners and frankfurters became "hot dogs"
the British Royal Family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha became "Windsor"
the British Royal relatives the Battenburgs became the "Mountbattens"

Paul Winalski wrote:What I find most amusing about it is the aspect of history repeating itself.

During the wave of anti-German sentiment of World War I, we had "patriotic" renaming going on both in America and Britain:

sauerkraut became "victory cabbage"weiners and frankfurters became "hot dogs"the British Royal Family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha became "Windsor"the British Royal relatives the Battenburgs became the "Mountbattens"

Puts me on mind of Monty Python -

"Well now, the result of last week's competition when we asked you to find a derogatory term for the Belgians. Well, the response was enormous and we took quite a long time sorting out the winners. There were some very clever entries. Mrs Hatred of Leicester Said 'let's not call them anything, let's just ignore them' ... (applause starts vigorously, but he holds his hands up for silence) ... and a Mr St John of Huntingdon said he couldn't think of anything more derogatory than Belgians. (cheers and applause; a girl in showgirl costume comes on and holds up placards through next bit) But in the end we settled on three choices: number three ... the Sprouts (placard 'The Sprouts'), sent in by Mrs Vicious of Hastings... very nice ; number two..... the Phlegms (placard) ... from Mrs Childmolester of Worthing; but the winner was undoubtedly from Mrs No-Supper-For-You from Norwood in Lancashire... Miserable Fat Belgian Bastards."

"Well now, the result of last week's competition when we asked you to find a derogatory term for the Belgians. Well, the response was enormous and we took quite a long time sorting out the winners. There were some very clever entries. Mrs Hatred of Leicester Said 'let's not call them anything, let's just ignore them' ... (applause starts vigorously, but he holds his hands up for silence) ... and a Mr St John of Huntingdon said he couldn't think of anything more derogatory than Belgians. (cheers and applause; a girl in showgirl costume comes on and holds up placards through next bit) But in the end we settled on three choices: number three ... the Sprouts (placard 'The Sprouts'), sent in by Mrs Vicious of Hastings... very nice ; number two..... the Phlegms (placard) ... from Mrs Childmolester of Worthing; but the winner was undoubtedly from Mrs No-Supper-For-You from Norwood in Lancashire... Miserable Fat Belgian Bastards."

I loved this bit. Of course you have to spend time talking about Flanders to find the whole Phlegm thing really funny. What else can you call a native of Flanders?